Jyotsnā: Seção I (estrofe 1)

Tradução normal

Introduction

Jyotsnā begins. First of all, Brahmānanda bows down to the Guru who is Śiva in person and then writes a short introduction to his work. Afterward, he starts commenting the stanzas themselves.

This is the first stanza (plus commentary) out of 67 stanzas of which the first Section (dealing with Āsana) consists. As you know, the entire work is composed of 388 stanzas of the Haṭhayogapradīpikā plus their respective commentaries. Even though I will not comment on either the original stanzas or the Brahmānanda's commentary, I will write some notes to make a particular point clear when necessary.

The present page constitutes a "Normal translation" (i.e. a word for word one together with my respective explanatory notes about the teachings given in the text and the like). Above, you have links to a "Pure translation" (the same thing as "Normal translation" but with Sanskrit at minimum for an easier reading) and an "Extended translation" (the same thing as "Normal translation" but with detailed grammatical definition of what every term is; besides, the explanatory notes about the teachings given in the text are replaced with ones about the grammatical structure and the like).

Brahmānanda's Sanskrit will be in dark green color while the original Haṭhayogapradīpikā's stanzas will be shown in dark red color. In turn, within the transliteration, the original stanzas will be in brown color, while the Brahmānanda's comments will be shown in black. Also, within the translation, the original stanzas by Svātmārāma, i.e. Haṭhayogapradīpikā, will be in green and black colors, while the commentary by Brahmānanda will contain words in both black and red colors.

Read Jyotsnā and experience your own essential nature.

Warning: All methods and techniques taught in this scripture MUST be practiced under the proper guidance of a qualified teacher. To practice them by oneself is generally DANGEROUS. Act wisely then. Of course, this site takes no responsibility in case you decide to ignore the present warning.

Important: All that is in brackets and italicized within the translation has been added by me in order to complete the sense of a particular phrase or sentence. In turn, all that is between double hyphen (--...--) constitutes clarifying further information also added by me.

(The commentary known as) Jyotsnā (jyotsnā) on Haṭhayogapradīpikā (haṭha-pradīpikā), which --i.e. Jyotsnā-- reveals (prakāśikā) the path (mārga) of Yoga (yoga), has been composed (tanyate) by Brahmānanda (brahmānandena) after having bowed --i.e. after he bowed-- (natvā) to Guru (gurum)(who is) Śiva (śivam) in person (sākṣāt)1||1||

Having understood (vijñāya) perfectly (su) the meaning (hārdam) of Gorakṣasiddhānta (gorakṣa-siddhānta)2, (now) the purport (bhāvaḥ)(of Haṭhayogapradīpikā), even (api) that one which is greatly (atyanta) secret (gūḍhaḥ), is described and explained (kathyate) clearly (sphuṭam) by me (mayā) through an abhiyoga (abhiyogāt)(related to) the most eminent (pramukhya) among the learned ones (śāstri) of mount Meru (meru)3. (My explanation in the form of Jyotsnā is) for the sake of (artham) the right (su) knowledge (bodha) of (all) those present (Idānīṁtanānām) about this (scripture) --i.e. about Haṭhayogapradīpikā-- (asyāḥ)4||2||

1 Firstly, the traditional salutation to Gaṇeśa for him to remove all the future obstacles in one's own way. After that, Brahmānanda (the author of Jyotsnā) bows before the Guru who is Śiva in person. The Guru is not a human being but the fifth kṛti or act of Lord Śiva. His five acts are: sṛṣṭi (manifestation), sthiti (maintenance) saṁhāra (dissolution) of the universe; along with tirodhāna (concealing of one's own nature) and anugraha (divine grace). The Guru is His anugraha or grace, by which one's essential nature is revealed. As the human guru is a kind of embodiment for His anugraha, you can salute the divine grace by bowing to such a guru.

2 He is speaking about Gorakṣasiddhāntasaṅgraha, the great work written by the sage Gorakṣa. Gorakṣa and his teacher Matsyendra compiled the Haṭhayoga science from the ancient Tantra-s.

3 Mount Meru is a fabulous mountain which is said to form the central point of Jambudvīpa (the main island --continent-- amongst the seven ones surrounding Meru); all the planets revolve round it. The river Ganges falls from heaven on its summit, and flows thence to the surrounding worlds. The presiding deities of the four quarters of the compass occupy the corresponding faces of the mountain, the whole of which consists of gold and gems. Its summit is the residence of Brahmā (the Creator), and a place of meeting for the gods, ṛṣi-s (seers), heavenly musicians, etc.

The word "abhiyoga" is tricky. If you consult a dictionary, you will find that it literally means "application". But in this context, it means "application of backward reference". This is affirmed by great scholars when they define "abhiyoga" in multiple manners: "application of backward reference", "backward reference of consciousness", "backward reference in memory", etc. As it is so difficult to be translated properly, I decided to keep it as such in the text. Well, what is the author trying to say then? Abhiyoga is something like this, for example: You emerge from deep sleep and you wonder, "In what condition was I?" The inner Voice will tell you something like: "You dreamt of nothing". Your declaration after coming out of such a state (i.e. "In what condition was I?") is "abhiyoga". Therefore, what Brahmānanda describes in his work comes from his abhiyoga or backward reference in memory, e.g. "What did I experience in my Samādhi or Perfect Concentration?". So, he recollected what the learned sages of Meru had said to him during Samādhi and finally wrote down that in Jyotsnā. All in all, he is writing by revelation.

One gets in contact with such sages when the mind is arrested (intellect OFF) during Samādhi. That is why I explained the secret of making one's intellect off in order to translate the Sanskrit writings, especially the ones like Jyotsnā, i.e. the ones that have been written by revelation. To be able to follow Brahmānanda, I must get in touch with his state of Samādhi too. When the intellect is off, only the Lord as a Knower remains. In that Lord, Meru and all sages reside. When the intellect is ON, such sages are considered as people who lived in ancient times (i.e. they are considered as knowables). But when the mind is arrested, they appear as the Knower alone. By recollecting what they were said during Samādhi, not only commentators but also their translators can enter divine mysteries. No Sanskrit translator will understand Brahmānanda without resorting to a state of arrested mind. In fact, I could understand the purport of "abhiyoga" in that way, viz. through the guidance of those sages appearing as the Supreme Knower in Samādhi.

4 I must be so "literal" as possible in Jyotsnā at the cost of "readability" because I will use this translation to explain Sanskrit grammar in detail. My apologies. In any case, by these notes I will alleviate your pain. Look, the phrase: "(My explanation in the form of Jyotsnā is) for the sake of the right knowledge of (all) those present about this (scripture) --i.e. about Haṭhayogapradīpikā--" means "(My explanation in the form of Jyotsnā is) for (all) those present --i.e. the ones studying the commentary-- to gain right knowledge about this (scripture) --i.e. about Haṭhayogapradīpikā--". Now it is clear, isn't it?

And now (atha), (the scripture) shedding light (pradīpikā) on Haṭhayoga (haṭhayoga)(begins): Let there be (astu) a salutation (namas) to that (tasmai) venerable (śrī) Primordial (ādi) Lord (nāthāya) by whom (yena) has been taught (upadiṣṭā) the Haṭhayoga science (haṭhayoga-vidyā) which shines forth (vibhrājate) in the form (iva) of a stairway (adhirohiṇī) for that person who wishes (icchoḥ) to ascend (āroḍhum) to the superior (pronnata) Rājayoga --lit. "Royal Yoga"-- (rājayogam)||1||

(By the initial phrase) "Śrīādināthāya (śrī-ādi-nāthāya), etc. (iti ādinā)" (it is obvious that) the supremely (parama) compassionate (kāruṇikaḥ) Svātmārāmayogīndra --i.e. Svātmārāma, the author of Haṭhayogapradīpikā-- (svātma-ārāma-yogi-indra)1, wishing to turn (vidhitsuḥ)(his) Haṭhayogapradīpikā (haṭha-pradīpikām) —the one which grants the fruit (phalām) of Kaivalya (kaivalya)2— into a door (dvārā) to Rājayoga (rāja-yoga) for the sake of (artham) the people (jana) who desire Liberation (mumukṣu), firstly (tāvat) undertakes (ācarati) the auspicious act (maṅgalam) characterized (lakṣaṇam) by a salutation (namaskāra) to venerable (śrīmat) Ādinātha --the Primordial Lord-- (ādi-nātha), the Founder (pravartaka) of Haṭhayoga (haṭha-yoga)3. (Svātmārāma performs that action) for the cessation (nivṛttaye) of the obstacles (pratyūha)(involved in) that (task)(tad) --viz. in the task of transforming Haṭhayogapradīpikā into a door to Rājayoga--4|

"Let there be (astu) a salutation (namas) to that (tasmai) venerable (śrī) Primordial (ādi) Lord --nātha-- (nāthāya)", this is the natural order and connection of words in the sentence (iti anvayaḥ)5|

Ādinātha (ādi-nāthaḥ) is the One (asau) who is (both) primordial (ādiḥ) and (ca... ca) lord (nāthaḥ). (He is) Śiva (śivaḥ), the Lord (īśvaraḥ) of all (sarva). This is the meaning (iti arthaḥ)|

The venerable One (śrīmān)(is) the Primordial (ādi) Lord (nāthaḥ)... (salutations) to that (tasmai) venerable (śrī) Primordial Lord (ādi-nāthāya)(who is Śiva)!6|

Here (atra), (in) "śrīādināthāya" (śrī-ādi-nāthāya iti), (there is) absence (abhāvaḥ tu) of "ya" --"ī" + "ā" should have formed "yā" in "śrīādi", but they did not though-- (yaṇ)(according to the precept) "One should pulverize (api... maṣam kuryāt) the bean --consonant "ya"-- (māṣam)(and) disregard (tyajet) violation (bhaṅgam) in the meter (chandas) of the verses (girām iti)". This is well-known --or else "this is to be known"-- (iti bodhyam) from the tradition (sampradāyāt) and (ca) excellence (sauṣṭhavāt) in pronunciation (uccāraṇa) of the knowers (vidām) of prosody (chandas)8|

to be continued

1 Svātmārāmayogīndra (or plainly Svātmārāma) is the author of Haṭhayogapradīpikā, the scripture being commented by Brahmānanda in the present Jyotsnā. The word Svātmārāma means "one who takes delight (ārāma) in his own (sva) Self (ātma)"; and yogīndra means "the first (or the chief) (indra) among/of the Yogī-s (yogi)". The word "yogī" is masculine and has two meanings: "one who seeks Yoga (Union with his own Self)" or else "one who has already attained such a Yoga". In writing "Yogī-s", I am hinting at the fact that I am speaking about great personalities who have achieved the goal of Yoga, and not mere seekers of Truth. Therefore, the long name Svātmārāmayogīndra means "the first (or the chief) among/of the Yogī-s who take delight in their own Self". Notice that in this case the term "sva" changed from "his own" to "their own" because it is now used with reference of more than one Yogī.

2 Kaivalya literally means "isolation". It is a state where there is aloofness from Prakṛti according to Sāṅkhya. Read my explanation of Kaivalya in "First Steps (3)" according to Sāṅkhya and Yoga. At any rate, to consider Kaivalya as final Emancipation from bondage of ignorance is more than enough in this context.

3 Brahmānanda will explain that Ādinātha is Śiva and, optionally, Viṣṇu too. Nonetheless, there are other implications in the word Ādinātha. There is the Nāthasampradāya or Tradition of the Nātha-s. In this tradition, Ādinātha (Lord Śiva) is the first in the line of those great Guru-s. This subject matter is complex. It will be studied in depth when Brahmānanda comments on the stanzas 5 to 9 of this First Section.

4 To make your life simpler I divided the first paragraph in Sanskrit into two sentences in English. However, it may be hard to read yet as I am clinging mostly to a literal translation of Sanskrit for my grammatical studies. Let us wrap up the first paragraph then: According to Brahmānanda, Haṭhayogapradīpikā grants the fruit of final Liberation. Its author, Svātmārāma, wishes to transform it into a door to the superior Rājayoga (in a nutshell, the traditional Yoga founded by the sage Patañjali) for the good of all those who desire Emancipation. Since Svātmārāma knows there will be a whole lot of obstacles in his way, he undertakes the auspicious act of saluting (paying homage) to Ādinātha (the originator of Haṭhayoga science) for having such obstacles removed. OK, the purport is clear now.

5 While Svātmārāma wrote: "Śrīādināthāya namo'stu tasmai" to meet the meter requirements, Brahmānanda gives the "natural" order and connection of words in that sentence: "Tasmai śrīādināthāya namo'stu" - "Let there be (astu) a salutation (namas) to that (tasmai) venerable (śrī) Primordial (ādi) Lord --nātha-- (nāthāya)". Note how "tasmai" appears now at the beginning. In general, order in Sanskrit is not too important as every word is properly identified (its gender, number, case, etc.). In vulgar languages, such as English, Spanish, etc., order in a sentence is crucial as the words are not so clearly identified as in Sanskrit. Still, even in Sanskrit there are some simple rules marking order to a certain extent.

Another conclusion a student of Sanskrit may arrive at is the following: as the poets move the words "almost" in a free way to meet the meter, to translate poetry is much more difficult than translating prose. This is true an untrue at the same time, because difficulty in prose is the presence of long paragraphs between pauses (marked with the bar |) containing several sentences. Unless you have a modern copy in signs (devanāgarī) of the scripture (viz. a printed copy) typed by a compassionate guy who added commas to mark the end of every sentence within one paragraph... well, you will be in a great trouble, because the long Sanskrit paragraphs may contain several sentences in English and you need to detect exactly "where" each of them starts and ends or your work will be an absolute nonsense. Therefore, to translate both poetry and prose is not without inherent difficulties. I prefer to translate poetry rather than prose, because despite the moving (or even the complete omission) of words to meet the meter requirements, it is much easier to trace the sentences and understand the meaning. This is specially true when you face long compounds in prose... the task of translating those compounds may become hellish very easily. All in all, if you want simplicity Sanskrit is not for you, hehe.

6 Among the devotees, it is pretty common to salute the Lord after describing His attributes. The word "namas" (salutation) was dropped there because it is taken for granted; like saying: "To that venerable Primordial Lord!" (with "salutation" being tacitly there). I added "who is Śiva" in the end, because Brahmānanda will do this again soon but with reference to Viṣṇu. Keep reading, please.

7 Here Brahmānanda interprets "Śrīnātha" (without "ādi") not as "venerable Lord" but as "husband of Śrī", viz. Viṣṇu. Playing with the words he has arrived at another conclusion. Anyway, Śiva and Viṣṇu as seen as different from each other only when the mind is working. When the mind is arrested, both are perceived like the one Lord. In other words, when one has his intellect ON, he perceives differences between the two. Nevertheless, when his intellect is OFF, both are seen as the very Lord. Only ignorant people with no experience of the state of arrested mind might believe that Śiva and Viṣṇu are two different entities. Differences only occur when one's mind is working.

8 I explain prosody in depth in my grammatical study of this page. Remember that I am not in expert in prosody even in my best dreams. It is a complex portion of Sanskrit grammar that I cannot master yet. I am so sorry. However, in spite of my limitations regarding Sanskrit prosody, here you are a summary:

According to Sanskrit prosody, a stanza or padya consists of four pāda-s --also known as "pada-s"-- or quarters. Such a stanza may be either vṛtta (with meter regulated by the number and position of syllables --akṣara-- in each pāda or quarter) or jāti (with meter regulated by the number of syllabic instants --mātrā-- in each pāda or quarter). Forget about "jāti" here because the meter of the present stanza is of the class "vṛtta". This class contains three subclasses: (1) samavṛtta (the four quarters of a stanza are similar), (2) ardhasamavṛtta (the alternate quarters are similar) and (3) viṣama (the four quarters are dissimilar).

Well, the current stanza belongs to the subclass samavṛtta (all the quarters are similar). This subclass is composed of 26 varieties, from 1 syllable per quarter through 26 syllables per quarter. In turn, each variety is divided into subvarieties according to the position of short (lit. light) and long (lit. heavy) syllables, etc. A long topic, no doubt about it. The variety used in the first stanza of Haṭhayogapradīpikā is the one consisting of 11 syllables per quarter. Within this variety there are several subvarieties, being the most common the one called Indravajrā. And this is exactly the type of meter used in this first stanza. The same thing is also stated by Brahmānanda at the end of his commentary on this stanza: Indravajrākhyaṁ vṛttam||1|| - "(The stanza is) vṛtta (and its) name (is) Indravajrā".

The scriptures "generally" are not written/printed by keeping the four quarters (pāda-s or pada-s) for the sake of saving space. You get, "in general", two lines, each consisting of two quarters. Let us see this in the first stanza:

As you can see, the first quarter contains one more syllable, which "apparently" violates the meter requirements. Why is this happening? Simply because Svātmārāma "pulverized the bean", i.e. he prevented "ya" (which looks like a bean in devanāgarī: य) from being formed in "Śrī + ā". Normally "ī + ā" change to "yā" by the 4th Primary Rule of Vowel Sandhi. He did so in order to keep the words "Śrī" and "ādi" clearly separate as they are adjectives/qualities of the Lord. Usually, the word "Śrī" (venerable) does not form Sandhi or combination with any word following it. If he had not pulverized the bean (viz. if he had not prevented the formation of "ya"), the final result would have been: "Śrī + ā" = "Śryā" - one heavy (long) syllable that perfectly meets the meter requirements. Since such a pulverization of the bean (omission of "ya") is fully allowed by the rules of Sanskrit prosody, Brahmānanda shows to the ones who are not conversant with Sanskrit meters (i.e. us!, hehe) that Svātmārāma did not make any mistake really. Good joke, Svātmārāma making mistakes with Sandhi and prosody!

Enough of this for the moment, since the level of knowledge is increasing too much for a "normal translation". In my grammatical study I can increase the level of knowledge much more until the "bean" of your intellect be completely pulverized, buddy! Just kidding! Anyway, one thing is true, in the "extended translation" I can go much deeper at my explanation of Sanskrit prosody. I have only scratched the surface for now.